Cross-cultural communication and global communication, wherein there exists personal and professional interaction between parties who speak different languages and/or come from different cultures, present greater challenges for individuals and organizations. The communication channels are expanding with advances in electronic and wireless data transmission, the rapid expansion of the global communications networks, the accelerated adoption of mobile applications and real-time global network delivery tools. With the growth of the on-demand information society, globalization, increased international travel, and surges in immigration worldwide, there exits a concomitant greater need to bridge these global communication channels by utilizing innovative communication platforms to exchange instant information in an appropriate cultural context and to facilitate and enhance real-time communication when parties speak different languages and come from other cultures.
In a society that is more mobile, omni-connected, and info-customer-centric, parties expect to find real-time solutions when communication problems, namely foreign language and cross-culture barriers, arise. The convergence of computing, communication and real-time technologies have created a global economy with an entirely new set of rules, opportunities and challenges. Cross-cultural experts and certified interpreters and translators currently offer their services on a per-assignment basis or are contracted by third-party groups to fulfill the needs of clients. A real time-global communication platform, with a database of rated providers, matchmaking tools, and scheduling components, will better serve individuals and organizations that demand more personalized attention, faster delivery of service, and more precise solutions. A system with an extensive database of providers, subject matter experts, real-time communication technology and digital collaboration tools will help people achieve goals in a situation and/or environment where language and culture barriers exist.
The global communications networks have created the backbone to provide real-time, on-demand, professional translation services; moreover, the burgeoning growth of international business, the borderless marketplace and the increased spatial division of labor have created a greater demand for professional global communication services, namely translation, interpretation and cross-cultural guidance. With an accelerating economy and a greater emphasis on customer-centric technologies, more consumers and organizations will participate in real-time global communication services and interact with multi-lingual knowledge experts to receive fast and personalized language translation solutions, information and guidance. Consumers and organizations will engage the skills and services of multi-lingual, knowledge experts—just-in-time, anytime, anywhere.
Globalization and mass emigration are creating greater interaction of persons from more racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse groups, contributing to linguistic and cultural barriers for adequate communication in critical fields, particularly in areas such as healthcare where communication errors can result in clinical, economic, and legal problems. With the advent of remote medical care, in which physicians make diagnoses via the global computer networks from locations worldwide, language and culture support will facilitate forging successful medical personnel-foreign language patient relationships. A system, method, device, apparatus, or a combination thereof will help find crucial information about foreign language patients in the global healthcare arena. Hospital providers worldwide tending to foreign language patients, emergency medical personnel trying to communicate with victims or individuals requiring critical care, educational institutes providing comprehensive medical treatment to its foreign student population, NGOs, including Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Operation Smile, as well as Military and government personnel operating beyond national borders, will embrace a system for facilitating communication between individuals requiring medical attention and healthcare providers.
Moreover, a customized real-time translation system for enterprises will help support the needs of its multilingual customer base. A fully-integrated, real-time interactive platform customized to an organization's specific needs will help organizations develop long-term relationships with its customers. Customized language and culture platforms for enterprises will facilitate communication within globally diverse workforces. Enterprises worldwide are seeking more innovative and efficient ways to deliver real-time solutions for their geographically dispersed workforces and for those that may face communication barriers during international assignments.
Current and emerging technologies are transforming the global communication channels. Broadband, optical networks, wireless LANs, real-time delivery tools, architecture endowed with intelligence, the advent of the Internet 2, and speech understanding computation combined with speech recognition tools will enable instantaneous network connectivity and will facilitate communication when parties need to exchange information, interact, and collaborate within environments that present language and culture challenges. The convergence of provider expertise, broadband and real-time delivery of knowledge, and digital customized platforms will facilitate communication and translation “just-in-time” and accommodate preferences “just-for-you.”
In addition, because of the accelerated demand for instant communication without barriers, the increased real-time interaction of individuals via messaging and global communication technology, the increased amount of International travel and the spread of the global spatial division of labor, multinational companies such as eBay, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, HP, Verizon, AT&T/Cingular, Apple Computer, Siemens, General Electric, Oracle, Sony, Nokia, Motorola, Virgin Atlantic, Ericsson, Lucent, British Telecom, SBC, Bell South, Samsung, American Express, Vodafone, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, as well as firms and organizations in healthcare, law and government, must meet the needs of customers and clients that are becoming more multicultural and multinational.
Heretofore, inventors have created and developed methods and processes for facilitating the delivery of network and telecommunication-based language translation and interpretation services. U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,422 (Eslambolchi, et al., —1999), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to an automatic language translation technique for use in a telecommunications network and provides a interpreter for telephone conversations that take place between people who speak different languages; yet, the technique is accessible via only an operator and a telephone, and not via a computer screen or kiosk; moreover, it provides no prior scheduling component, involves no subject matter expertise, lacks provider profiling, involves no one-button set-up or connection to translators as does this invention, and provides no tracking or archiving of data, session or event record.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,343 (Davit, et al., 1995), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to an on-demand language interpretation in a telecommunications system; but it provides only translators or interpreters to connect the two calling parties and not an integrated real-time global communication facilitation system to provide immediate assistance for overcoming language and culture barriers as well as subject matter expertise.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,454 (Dahlen, 1999), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to a telecommunications speech/text conversion and message delivery system; yet it does not provide voice-to-voice translation and/or telecommunications speech/text conversion, followed by real-time translation and delivery of messages by providers to consumer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,304 (Marschner, et al., 1996), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to a system, i.e., an arrangement wherein an administrator uses a translation database in real-time to administer a switching system. The invention does not delineate a system or method for facilitating real-time communication for parties in situations and environments wherein there exits language and culture barriers. In addition, there exists no menu-driven component wherein parties can make selections based on preferences and specific needs for conveying information, for example, during interactions with health care staff and foreign language speaking patients, or legal situations requiring the communication of precise and accurate information with non-native speakers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,642 (Franz, et al, 2001), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to a method and process for providing spoken language translation; but it lacks a fully integrated real-time communication system for providers to delivery instant translations and knowledge expertise and a customized communication platform for enterprises to serve a multilingual customer base and a diverse global workforce.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,123 (Chanod, et al., 2003), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates a method and system for processing language in a computer system, particularly, generating translated phrases and expressions. This system focuses on the automation of language translation, but it does not utilize a database of providers for real-time communication delivery.
U.S. Pat. No. H2,098 (Morin, et al., 2004), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates a multilingual communications device for providing a predetermined set of medical questions to aid in diagnosing patients that do not speak the language of the doctor. This system focuses on the automation of language translation by storing “an ordered list” comprising phrases and does not employ any video related to showing anything other than selectable phrases as opposed to people and their respective expressions and mannerisms. Furthermore, it does not have a “common link” where someone with fluency in two or more languages may bridge a communication gap between a consumer and another party that does not speak said consumer's language. Said U.S. Pat. No. H2,098 (Morin, et al., 2004) further relies on a limited set of “pre-recorded audio translations” and “digital phrases stored” and when combining these limitations with a user and respondent that do not speak each other's language, and also where any possible communication passed between said user and respondent is processed through software and a limited number of stored phrases, then that makes this system extremely limited. Said U.S. Pat. No. H2,098 (Morin, et al., 2004) further does not lend itself to the complexities of human interaction and language translation, since the important need for communication and knowledge transfer is bound by software, and since user and respondent have no common language; therefore, making it a scripting tool and not a tool for real-time translation.
Accordingly, existing inventions describe methods and systems for delivering language translation applications and multi-lingual knowledge transfer that is created by computer translation, and systems that enable individuals to receive translated information by a non-expert, but there does not appear to be an invention that possesses all the features and components of our system and method for delivering real-time translation and interpretation services and cross-cultural expertise, by certified providers over the global communication and mobile networks, and customized communication enterprise platforms and kiosks. To summarize, the systems and methods of the existing inventions have one or more of these disadvantages:                Global communication and language translation services are computer generated, leaving them prone to grave errors due to the complexity of language;        Global communication and translation/interpretation services are not delivered in real-time;        Global Communication and translation/interpretation services are not provided by experts in respective fields such as, but not limited to, law, healthcare, hospitality, government, and international business.        Global Communication and translation/interpretation services are not currently delivered over mobile communication devices with a subscriber business model or pay now per-usage platform;        Global communication and translation/interpretation services, especially for spoken language translation, using voice and speech recognition technologies, often result in critical misunderstandings and misinterpretations;        Global Communication and translation/interpretation services by selected providers for delivery via telephony and mobile communication devices cannot be scheduled for just-in-time, anytime, anywhere delivery, without depending on a third-party operator/facilitator to connect consumers (s) with provider(s);        Global Communication and translation/interpretation services do not generate an audit trail, via a transcript recording, including audio and visual, of the event, session, and conference, which can be especially useful in the healthcare and legal fields;        Global Communication and translation/interpretation services, currently offered over the Global networks, do not enable individuals and organizations to choose their provider based on factors including, but not limited to expertise, gender, age, profile, availability, and ratings.        
Technological advances, especially related to telephony, real-time delivery of content, speech, text and information over the global communication networks, and advanced translation tools utilizing speech recognition and artificial intelligence components, facilitate communication wherein language and culture barriers exist, but the complexity of language and factors related to culture and specialized knowledge require experts to bridge the communication divide anywhere, anytime, just-in-time.
Technology and machine translations cannot possibly replace the human element necessary in critical translation and communication, especially in the medical and legal fields. Even with a database of phrases built into a computerized system to accommodate basic communication between and among medical personnel and patients, grave and critical errors can often occur because of miscommunication, misinterpretation, or lack of culture awareness. Slang, sayings, idiomatic phrases, dialects, accents, regional differences, levels of education and other concerns make computer systems alone inadequate to translate language, and further demand the need for talented human translators to work in conjunction with technology over the Global Communication Networks to offer a true value-added translation and knowledge transfer service.
The key challenge our invention addresses is finding solutions for facilitating real-time global communication and making immediate accurate spoken language translations from a source language to a target language in a given situation and/or for a specific request. A real-time digital Rosetta stone utilizing a database of qualified protocol advisors, ambassadors, certified translators and interpreters, operating out of remote locations, delivering expertise over the global computer networks, mobile phones, and kiosks, bridges the global communication channels with collaboration, customization, innovation and convenience.